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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24369139">Presents of Varying Edibility</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion'>InfinityIllusion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blanket Permission, Dimension Travel, Gen, Ichigo goes by another name in this fic, Innuendo, M/M, Possible OOC-ness, The author has no idea what they're doing, Vague Time Period, bookstore, but other than that, candy maker!Kisuke, do not copy to another site, eldritch!Ichigo, history was mostly ignored in the making of this fic, no beta we die like men, off-screen desecration of corpses, what's canon anyways</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 11:08:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,143</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24369139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kisuke would like to say that he's settling into the life of a simple candy shop owner in Karakura wonderfully.  This might, admittedly, be due in great part to the bookstore down the way owned by the mysterious Mochizuki-sama, who has some how, quite abruptly, inserted himself into Kisuke's life, and willingly selling Kisuke's sweets at his bookstore.</p>
<p>Now, if Kisuke could just figure out what his store was called, or, even, meet the man when Kisuke isn't hauling a body, that would be even better.</p>
<p>UraIchi Week 2020: Day 1, Dimension Travel</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke, Urahara Kisuke &amp; Kurosaki Ichigo, Urahara Kisuke &amp; Tsukabishi Tessai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>UraIchi Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Presents of Varying Edibility</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It's that time of year again!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Also, apologies in advance for any OOC-ness, MDZS/The Untamed is currently eating my brain and writing Bleach is hard because I don't actually have the ability to not hyper focus on a fandom.</p>
<p>But this is done!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Much thanks to miyamellyn, InternetSydney, and spj/speos for listening to me whine as I attempted to actually do things ahead of time this week, and also for letting me ramble about Bleach!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>Urahara Kisuke sets up the Urahara <em>Shōten</em> relatively early on in his exile.  While the Vizored had needed a place for stability and Kisuke himself needed a place to stabilize them, the entire process did not take nearly as long as expected and terrifying the humans by making the forest in the surrounding mountains haunted for a bit was probably good for them!  All this new technology and everything – ghosts and hauntings could bring them back to their roots and keep them humble, or cultured, or something.</p>
<p>(He ignores any of a variety of more disturbing memories that might pass in front of his mental eye – everyone is still sane, or as sane as a high level Shinigami ever is, and alive.  It was worth the long nights in forests, causing terrifying shrieks that would ensure no one with sense would enter the deeper recesses and disturb the cave in which they’d taken refuge, where Kisuke was fighting the results of his own curiosity and in some cases, what might otherwise be his friends.  It’s fine, everything is fine now.  Results-oriented, that’s a state of mind he’s embracing – as if he wasn’t quite like that anyways, adds a snide voice he ignores.)</p>
<p>So, the shop.  It’s important to keep busy (important to bide his time, and patience has been one of the few virtues the <em>Onmitsukidou</em> had nurtured), and to make the best of things (when Hirako and the others had left, he cannot blame them, but he equally cannot help his jealousy). To make the best of things, then, and in order to blend in with the humans he’s now stuck among, he needs a job.  A job means money, means food, means Tessai-san and Yoruichi-sama can be comfortable, means he can buy things to continue experimenting.</p>
<p>And besides, it’s candy.  While some aspects of chemistry vary greatly between the mortal world and Soul Society, there’s not <em>that</em> much difference when it comes to candy.  Candy is good for the soul, too, so it works out well that Kisuke opens a candy store.</p>
<p>What he’s not expecting, however, is the arrival and offer on his store’s opening day and just hours into the actual opening itself.</p>
<p>“Irassaimase,” Kisuke calls just after Tessai-san’s own greeting, from where he’s finishing up a display.</p>
<p>“Ah, hello.  Is the owner of this establishment available?” An older woman’s voice says from just inside the shop.</p>
<p>“Certainly!” Kisuke replies brightly, whirling from behind the display.  It’s not like there are many (any) other customers at the moment.</p>
<p>“My name is Ogawa Yukiko, I work for the bookshop down the street.”  They exchange bows, and Ogawa continues.  “Mochizuki-sama was wondering if you would be willing to come to an agreement where we could buy some sweets from you in bulk, to resell at the bookstore.”</p>
<p>Kisuke blinks.  “Would you credit this shop as the source?”</p>
<p>“Of course!  We would also provide further information as to your location for any who would inquire as to your location, hours, etc.”</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with advertising that pays you to do it, Kisuke supposes.  It’s not like he’s doing this to remain in business, really.  Making money is good, for Yoruichi-sama, and Tessai-san, and for helping those Hollowified by Aizen…but equally, he’s doing this because he’s bored.</p>
<p>“I could be persuaded to lower the cost of a bulk purchase order’s, if your boss doesn’t mind doing the same with book orders?”</p>
<p>Ogawa smiles slightly.  “Yes, he did say that he would be willing to perform an even trade to that effect, if you were so interested.”</p>
<p>Kisuke nods, “Then I have no problem with this offer.”</p>
<p>Kisuke has no idea if there’s anything else he needs to do in regards to this offer.</p>
<p>“Thank you very much for your time, then,” Ogawa says after a pause, clearly bemused.  “I will bring by the official form and money for our first order tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>With another bow, Ogawa leaves.  Kisuke goes back to his display.</p>
<p>“Tenchou…”</p>
<p>“Yes, Tessai-san?”</p>
<p>“…Please leave any further business deals to me, Tenchou.”</p>
<p>“Maa, Tessai-san.  You don’t trust me?”</p>
<p>“Tenchou…”</p>
<p>“Alright, alright.  You can take care of the paperwork and negotiating then.”</p>
<p>Tessai-san sighs.</p>
<p>Kisuke goes back to his display and the curiosity of the bookshop up the street from him.  He’d never advertised the <em>Shōten</em> as a candy store, since there was no real point, in his mind.  If people are curious, they could come in and figure it out themselves.  Everyone, for the most part, could do with a little more curiosity, he thinks, mind flicking back to Aizen and Central 46 and the Soutaichou.</p>
<p>But why hadn’t the boss himself come?  Kisuke wonders to himself, instead of dwelling.  Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the boss themselves to come?  Was it an attempt to scorn Kisuke and his shop?  Was the boss otherwise away?  Too young?  Sick?  But how would they have heard of the <em>Shōten</em>, then?  (Kisuke hadn’t bothered to post an opening date, either.  Curiosity, it was a good trait to have, and here he was offering the opportunity to spark and otherwise encourage it in all those mortals passing and living in Karakura Town!)</p>
<p>Well, maybe he’d need to check out this bookstore, at some point.  Not this evening, though, this evening was reserved for researching more about chocolate, which was a new import that was quickly gaining popularity.</p>
<p>(And if there might be a side job featuring a little bit of espionage and potential smuggling?  Well, Yoruichi-sama had always had a bit of wanderlust to her soul, considering just how jealous she was of the stories Shiba-san would tell of her childhood, wandering the Rukongai with her siblings, and any subsequent trips.  Besides, it’s like the more palatable version of a portion of the <em>Onmitsukidou</em> missions.  She could have the best of, well, not both worlds, but.  Something close.)</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Ogawa returns as promised, at the exact moment Urahara <em>Shōten</em> opens, money in a purse, and a scroll and a book in her hands.</p>
<p>“Hello, Urahara-sama.  Here is the contract, with the stated terms.”</p>
<p>Kisuke reads over the scroll, and sees the <em>hanko</em> at the end.  He’s guessing that he should probably stamp in the same area?</p>
<p>(Well, if he messes this up, it isn’t like Tessai-san didn’t agree to take over future negotiation and paperwork!)</p>
<p>He pulls his own out from a pouch he’d been keeping in his sleeve, and stamps.</p>
<p>Ogawa doesn’t say anything, but accepts the scroll back.</p>
<p>“I also took the liberty of bringing over what Mochizuki-sama calls the bookstore’s catalogue, so you might have an idea of what kinds of books we currently carry.”</p>
<p>She offers the catalogue, side-bound, with a dark cover and no name, to Kisuke and he happily takes it off her hands.  He refrains from cracking it open with only a little difficulty.  Really.</p>
<p>“If there are any books, or subjects, you’re particularly interested, you need only write them down, and send someone over with the list and money to pay for them.  If we have those books available, we’ll send them back with whomever you send over.”</p>
<p>“How very convenient!” Kisuke exclaims.  It didn’t quite have the same charm as the central library of Shinou, or his own personal library, or the one he’s currently building, but none of those were stores.  He can definitely appreciate the convenience, though, especially considering that Kisuke is trying to pass himself and his shop off as human, and easy access to a wide variety of books can only help him look eccentric and not, well, something else.  Frankly, Kisuke wouldn’t be surprised if a part of the only reason things have been this easy so far for them and the shop is that Kisuke has yet to perfect his <em>gigai</em>.  Currently they’re essentially possessing a few bodies, which allows him to present himself and Tessai-san as, phenotypically at least, and incredibly awkwardly, more run of the mill Japanese people.</p>
<p>“Thank you.  Mochizuki-sama has very interesting ideas and enjoys implementing them to better help his customers.”</p>
<p>Interesting ideas?  Hmm.</p>
<p>“I look forward to Mochizuki-sama’s other ideas, then!” Kisuke grins.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Urahara-sama.  I hope you find them as delightful as you have found this one.”  Ogawa is laughing at him.  It’s not bad laughter, though, so Kisuke will continue his slightly oblivious, bumbling, eccentric, candy-making, bibliophile front.</p>
<p>Before Kisuke starts on asking after Mochizuki-sama’s health, or after the person behind this whole thing at all, Ogawa asks if she could have a look at all the candies and sweets they had in stock, since she was prepared to order on her boss’s behalf.</p>
<p>Kisuke allows himself to talk about the various things that are currently on display (mostly relatively simple wagashi, a simple small cake or two, and some candied fruits) and things he’s thinking about creating (a wider variety of candied fruits, cakes, and other things he’s heard about or read about as being popular in other countries).</p>
<p>(He doesn’t mention the chocolate he’s planning on working with.  That can be a surprise, after he sees how it goes.)</p>
<p>Ogawa orders a number of the <em>wagashi</em> and one of the cakes.</p>
<p>“I would be more than happy to pass on any comments the customers have on your creations, if you would like?”</p>
<p>“Oh, that would be helpful, thank you.”</p>
<p>Kisuke has no idea how to human, but it’s not like peer-reviewing was something he’s previously had a lot of experience with, and as long as Tessai-san gave it the okay, he’d put it out as an option.  But, who knew what humans themselves enjoyed – this could be an excellent (very dirty) experiment.</p>
<p>There would, alas, be a number of variables he wouldn’t be able to control, but as entertainment, this could work nicely.</p>
<p>“I, or whoever comes tomorrow, will let you know of anything we hear today.”</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke learns that humans more or less enjoy the same things he and Tessai-san do in the bodies they’re currently inhabiting.  He makes more <em>wagashi</em>, and diversifies his cakes.  The humans of Karakura really seem to enjoy the candied fruit, but the problem is keeping it cool, since most people don’t appreciate how sticky it makes their fingers.  So that’s something else Kisuke has turned his attention to, in addition to the chocolate (which Yoruichi-sama is very happy to help with), and also the longer-term problem of Aizen.</p>
<p>Life is…not bad.</p>
<p>There’s only one thing that really makes it uncomfortable: possessing bodies.</p>
<p>Consequently, Kisuke has determined that, really, he needs to make everyone a body.  A unique body, that looks the same as their soul form, which (at least in Yoruichi-sama’s case) allows them at minimum moderate access to their reiatsu without exploding, or dying, or hemorrhaging, or spontaneously combusting, or anything else that’s not conducive to living among humans.</p>
<p>To that end, Kisuke buys medical textbooks.  Many, many medical textbooks.</p>
<p>(He still hasn’t been in the bookstore that buys his candies, and somehow, neither has Tessai-san.  Those who come from the store for the sweets are always willing to accept any requests he has and run the books back over to him either later that day or the next day, depending on day.  The shop has a rather odd pattern, both of people and apparently hours, though…)</p>
<p>But medical textbooks.  Which, unfortunately, can only tell him so much, and Kisuke is pretty sure he can’t enroll in a medical school or apprentice a physician, considering that he still needs to make candy (and he’s still working on the Chocolate Problem).</p>
<p>Which is why he has a totally reasonable explanation as to why he’s carrying a corpse through the back streets on a moonless night.  In February.</p>
<p>“You could’ve just made friends with a mortician, you know,” a voice said from mouth of the alley Kisuke was passing in front of.</p>
<p>“Ah, and how do you know I didn’t!”</p>
<p>The voice snorts.  “The local mortician isn’t in that direction.”</p>
<p>“That’s why there’s the round-about way of getting places.”</p>
<p>“Which generally is the more suspicious way.”</p>
<p>Kisuke makes as if he’s gripping his chest, “You find <em>me</em> suspicious?”</p>
<p>“You’re carrying a corpse on your back in the dead of night, on a new moon.”</p>
<p>“Ah, well….”</p>
<p>“This way, there’s a patrol that tends to deviate up ahead,” the voice says, lending humanity to a shadow that stirs within the darkness of the alley.</p>
<p>“And how do I know you’re not suspicious?” Kisuke counters mildly.</p>
<p>“I am suspicious,” the shadow replies, “but I’m also helping you and not asking about why one of my best customers is hauling around a corpse in the dead of night.”</p>
<p>“Ah, then you must be Mochizuki-sama.”</p>
<p>“Something like that.”  The shadow moves again.  “Well, are you coming or not?”</p>
<p>“Maa, maa, I’m coming, I’m coming.”</p>
<p>The shadows snort again, but remain silent (and very dark) the rest of the way back to the Urahara <em>Shōten</em>, specifically the very skinny side alley behind the shop.  Even here, with a few lights visible in the shop itself, it’s hard to see much beyond a vague humanoid shape that seems to have rather spiky, rather long, hair, which goes against the current fashion styles of the customers Kisuke has seen and with whom he’s interacted.</p>
<p>“Well, thank you, I suppose, Mochizuki-sama!”</p>
<p>“Sure, whatever.  Call me Mu.  The only people who call me Mochizuki-sama are the people who work for me, and only because I can’t get them to <em>stop</em>.”</p>
<p>“Well, Mu-san, thank you very much for your assistance.  Would you like to step in for a cup of tea?”</p>
<p>“No, thank you,” the shadow replies quickly.  “I have my own work to do.”</p>
<p>“Then, goodnight, Mu-san.”</p>
<p>“Same to you, Urahara.”</p>
<p>Kisuke wanders into the back of the shop and over to his laboratory, wondering just what someone like Mu-san would be doing on a lovely (albeit cold) moonless night like tonight.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>The next books Kisuke receives have a map to the local mortuary.  In every single book, apparently in case he misplaces a map, or so he doesn’t forget, or because Mu-san is a passive-aggressive asshole.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke makes sure to make a <em>wagashi</em> specifically for Mu-san.  It has its own box and everything!  Kisuke really hopes he appreciates just how much trouble he went through to recreate that corpse he’d been carrying, since it’d been so very dark.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke goes to the morticians, though, and is quite happy with who and what he finds – the mortuary is perfectly happy to let him take a few different corpses every month in exchange for sweets, that Kisuke can just drop off at the door in the back.</p>
<p>(He makes another special order for Mu-san, but this time it’s strawberry-<em>daifuku</em>, since they’re in season and apparently in very high demand at the moment.)</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>The next month, Kisuke’s order of books contains a few European medical texts and language dictionaries.  He also gets one on medical sutures and various common stitches for mending various cloth items for some reason.</p>
<p>Kisuke spends most of his time in the lab, when he’s not churning out candy – isn’t it nice that sleep is optional?</p>
<p>He also tries to get whoever comes over to bring him books and receive the bookstore (he still doesn’t know what the bookstore’s name is and that’s not like him at all) to tell him what Mu-san’s favorite sweets are.  None of the various people are helpful (and there do seem to be quite a few of them – why does a bookseller need six different people to help in his store?), until Ogawa-san stops by again.</p>
<p>“Ogawa-san!  Do you know what Mochizuki-sama’s favorite sweets are?  He was very helpful with a book I’d been looking for!”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Urahara-sama, I’m not sure.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eat sweets.”</p>
<p>“Huh.”</p>
<p>This will require some research.  At least his gigai are coming along nicely.  It takes so long for things to grow.  They’re at a tedious stage.  Kisuke really didn’t ever need to revist what he looked like as a young teen.</p>
<p>That still doesn’t prepare him for the morning after the new moon to find a new stack of books and a note that says, “chocolate J.”</p>
<p>Well, that’s incentive.  He had placed it on a back-burner for a bit, hadn’t he?  Even though Yoruichi-sama was having quite a time playing with all sorts of different people involved in the importation of chocolate.</p>
<p>Perhaps he should look into whether chocolate was bad for cats or not.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Chocolate, Kisuke was beginning to find, was a little difficult to perfect.  In addition, “chocolate” was not particularly specific – did he mean dark?  Bitter? Bitter-sweet?  Milk?  What percentage of cacao did he like?  Unfortunately for Kisuke’s sleep and remaining spark of sanity, Ogawa-san had been ill recently, and none of the others who came to the <em>Shōten </em>daily are quite as helpful as her.</p>
<p>Kisuke supposes it’s time (far past time, really) to do some investigation of his own.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>What quickly becomes apparent, however, is that the operation times of the still unnamed bookstore are rather bizarre.  Kisuke doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, really, since he works and invents as he pleases these days.</p>
<p>(By which Tessai-san would give him a stare that said he slept even less now than when they were in Soul Society, since he didn’t have things like Captain’s meetings or reports or other kinds of paperwork to attend to.</p>
<p>Does that really matter?  If Kisuke could create, he’s happy.  If Kisuke could create and distract himself from everything that is his and too many others’ situation right now, he’ll be fine.)</p>
<p>But back to Mu-san’s bookstore.</p>
<p>There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason as to why the operation hours kept shifting to end earlier and earlier in the day as the week passed, but Kisuke would figure it out.  Mu-san also doesn’t do him the favor of leaving the bookstore (if that is where he lives), so Kisuke resigns himself to a very long, mostly boring stakeout.  It had been awhile since he’d last been on one, and found that, really, his memories of just how dull they could be were lying.  It was even more dull than he’d remembered, after that first day spent speculating on the opening and closing hours.  It doesn’t help that Kisuke really wants to explore the bookstore himself, now that he is properly thinking of it again, but considering how Mu-san was that one night they’d met, entering the bookstore might not get him what he wants.</p>
<p>And so he waited on the rooftops, across the street, in Shinigami form and with his reiatsu signature suppressed and blending with the environment.</p>
<p>And then, one day, the store doesn’t open at all.</p>
<p>None of the passersby seem to notice, and Kisuke saw Hara-san, who’s replaced Ogawa-san, leave for the morning batch of sweets, and return, but the store didn’t open.  Hara-san left it rather quickly, too, almost as if she’d just dropped off the snacks and then left.</p>
<p>Maybe Mu-san does live in the shop.  Maybe he’s just sick, although who wants to eat only candy when ill?</p>
<p>Kisuke continues to resist the urge to knock or otherwise enter the bookstore.</p>
<p>He does not resist the urge to tail Mu-san when the man appears outside the bookstore that night.  Mu-san only seems to have left once the street was deserted, and continued to blend quite seamlessly with the night.</p>
<p>Mu-san walks to the river, walks around a block that is recently constructed, but seems neither pleased nor disappointed in what he finds.  The area is residential, and Kisuke notes its location to the river the bookstore.  If Mu-san is fine with walking, it’s not a bad place for a single man to live.  Certainly there are many worse places, both in Karakura and in other places Kisuke has seen, should Mu-san become tired of possibly living in his shop.</p>
<p>(Kisuke smothers the thought that he’d really prefer it if Mu-san didn’t leave his bookstore, considering how exciting all of this was.  What did a bookseller need with the mortician?  How did they meet?  Did Mu-san write, too, or was it something…else?  Ogawa-san had gotten sick and then recently left as a result, but no one could say with what, and did a single bookstore need 6 assistants and an owner?  One assistant per day, with another on standby or as a manager?)</p>
<p>Mu-san returns to the river, watches the water stream past, asks quietly, “Has this evening been enlightening, Urahara-san?”</p>
<p>Kisuke doesn’t move.</p>
<p>Mu-san turns to stare him in the eye, one dark eyebrow raised.</p>
<p>Kisuke chuckles, wishing he had a fan or something to cover his face, and says, “Ah, it was interesting, certainly!”</p>
<p>Mu-san chuckles.  “Because it gave you more questions?”</p>
<p>“Precisely!”</p>
<p>Mu-san shakes his head, and Kisuke admires how his hair sways with the motion.  This close, it’s easier to tell what of the man is and isn’t shadows – black, spiky hair, left loose and long – down past his hips and that’s where Kisuke stops himself from looking further, dark eyes, dark scarf wrapped high to cover his nose, dark clothes – Western in style, this time, dark shoes.</p>
<p>“Well,” Mu-san says, having appraised Kisuke in turn, “are you going to ask your questions?”</p>
<p>“Would you answer them honestly?”  Because as sad as it would be to get all his questions answered with limited effort on his part, stake outs are incredibly dull and he has a few too many ideas at the moment to want to return to it if there’s another option.</p>
<p>“Would I answer them at all?” Mu-san rebuts.</p>
<p>“Maa, maa,” and here a fan would truly be helpful, “you asked if I would ask, so I would say, yes.  And you seem,” Kisuke allows his eyes to sharpen, “like you’d be honest enough in your answers.”</p>
<p>Mu-san hums, but doesn’t disagree as he holds Kisuke’s stare.</p>
<p>Completely changing faces, Kisuke crows, “One question then, for now!  Do you live in your shop?”</p>
<p>“After a fashion,” Mu-san replies.</p>
<p>Which is an answer, if not one as clear as Kisuke would prefer. Which just means –</p>
<p>“Ask a better question next time,” Mu-san smirks, and then departs.</p>
<p>Kisuke follows him back to the bookstore just for pettiness and spite, and there’s absolutely no part of him that’s admiring what he can see of the other man’s silhouette.  No part of him at all.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>The next morning, Kisuke makes sure to have another treat for Mu-san, but this time it’s yet another corpse.  He can wait for his chocolate, since he didn’t specify which type he liked, which caused this whole mess.</p>
<p>(It’s not a mess.  There’s no reason to be this petty.  But also, why<em> shouldn’t </em>Kisuke do this?)</p>
<p>His books the next day just prove that it was worth it.  Why would he embroider anything anyways?</p>
<p>Tessai-san seems very amused, however.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke can recognize a pattern, and so the next moonless night, he seeks out Mu-san again, this time with a singular question in mind, and a fan in hand, since he had finally remembered he wanted to buy.</p>
<p>This time, Kisuke waits by the river for him.  There’s certainly still more to know about the man, but if Mu-san can see him out of the body he’s using, then there’s little point in trying to use Kisuke’s own spirit form to try and negate the man’s senses and stake him out, especially when the only times Kisuke has seen him out of the bookstore – and he had popped out to watch every so often, for an hour or two – are on moonless nights.</p>
<p>Tessai-san hadn’t seen him at all when he’d went, the few times he went himself.</p>
<p>Kisuke might also be tweaking various surveillance technology to work for him in the mortal realm, just to keep an eye on the bookshop, and the <em>Shōten</em> when, or if, the need arises for them to leave the shop.</p>
<p>It’s also likely not the worst idea to try and sneak some into Soul Society, if at all possible, just so that everyone is kept abreast of the movements there.</p>
<p>“Another question?” Mu-san asks, a sword’s length away, voice amused.</p>
<p>Kisuke snaps out his fan to cover his face.  “Indeed!  What kind of chocolate do you like?”</p>
<p>Mu-san blinks, apparently in surprise, if Kisuke’s read of his eyebrows is correct.  The man is still covering the lower portion of his face, though his clothes are more traditional (and still black) this time.</p>
<p>“Dark or milk are both fine.”</p>
<p>“Wonderful!” Kisuke says, voice brighter than before, and full of as much annoyance as he could muster.  “<em>Why couldn’t you have included this information in your note?” </em> is definitely a sentiment that he sincerely hopes the other is reading from his tone.</p>
<p>Mu-san shrugs his shoulders slightly, “Investigation and curiosity are important for the soul, right?”</p>
<p>Mu-san, Kisuke decides with a note of finality, is an asshole.  And yet, Kisuke keeps coming back.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>The next month, Kisuke hand delivers Mu-san’s sweets.  Asks another question (“What is your bookstore’s name?”  “Void.”  “I see.”), leaves with the amused arch of Mu-san’s eyebrow taunting his back.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke keeps coming back.  Because apparently, Kisuke very much appreciates this very one specific ass.</p>
<p>And he might also be accepting that the double entendre of that statement is valid.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Void’s, Mu-san’s, assistants change over as the new few years pass; Hara-san is now the most experienced.</p>
<p>Kisuke makes sweets, of increasing elaborateness, has enough books that two rooms would be filled and their own library, if they weren’t as scattered as they are.</p>
<p>Kisuke begins to build his training room, now that the <em>gigai</em> are complete.  Hirako comes alone, and picks up his <em>gigai</em>. He doesn’t pay, because Kisuke won’t take it for that.  He leaves.</p>
<p>The rest of the Visored show up over the next few days.  Mashiro is the only one who has much of anything to say to him.</p>
<p>That’s fine.</p>
<p>Tessai-san makes comments about potential problems that the training room will have to avoid.  Things like it not being too close to the surface, it being reinforced, avoiding things that might occur in the future that might run beneath the ground, beyond what’s already there.</p>
<p>Kisuke decides that a pocket dimension might be easier, after reading the books on architecture and cave systems and archeology (why?  Why not?) and others that he buys or is sent.</p>
<p>If it’s a pocket dimension, one big training room or area or dimension, then he won’t have to worry about those things.  It’d be easier to collapse, too, to potentially take out the <em>Shōten</em> or any invaders to it, if it comes to it.</p>
<p>He’s been a part of the <em>Onmitsukidou</em>.  It would come to it, if they got involved.</p>
<p>(Kisuke’s various surveillance equipment is not showing anything good occurring in Soul Society.  Yoruichi-sama makes sure that Shiba Kuukaku and Shiba Ganju are well, and doesn’t return to Karakura for a few long years.)</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke still comes back, though.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>“Come to the bookshop, next time,” Mu-san greets him with, one night years – a few decades, and hundreds of shop assistants, and thousands of books, and sweets –  into this friendship.</p>
<p>Kisuke’s mask is better, these days, so he immediately flutters the fan in front of his face, instead of expressing his absolute shock.</p>
<p>“Mu-san! After all this time, I’m finally being permitted to enter your lair?”</p>
<p>Mu-san snorts and shakes his head in fondness.  Kisuke is standing by that fondness, even if it is slightly terrifying for him to acknowledge.  “Yeah, come over the next new moon.”</p>
<p>“I will, then.” There’s more vulnerability in that than Kisuke would like, but that’s probably fine with Mu-san.  Mu-san has seen worse, over the years, and most recently with the establishment of the <em>Shōten</em> as a way point for Shinigami being assigned to the Living World.</p>
<p>Kisuke doesn’t look at Mu-san, though.  Showing vulnerability doesn’t mean he has to acknowledge it, or the continuous creeping realization that Mu-san is an actual <em>friend</em>.</p>
<p>Neither of them break the silence, and Kisuke leaves without asking a question – one of the few times he’s done so.</p>
<p>The invitation is worth so much more, though, and raises plenty of questions, too.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke spends the intervening days trying to come up with something in exchange.  Maybe a spar in his training room?  Does Mu-san even spar?</p>
<p>Tessai-san is far too amused by Kisuke’s apparent stress to find a suitable gift to reciprocate the invitation, because just inviting Mu-san to the <em>Shōten</em> has so much less weight, in his mind.  There’s no reason for him to not come over himself any day he so chose, except for his apparent seclusion and general propensity to stay by the river for the majority of the days Kisuke has met with him.  Oh, there are some days he doesn’t appear, but to a day, Kisuke has been told that there was “something out of town that I need to deal with” perhaps thrice.  Kisuke assumed it might have been book smuggling, considering some of the books that Kisuke has received over the years, asked for and gifted, both.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Kisuke goes, gift in mind, but not in hand.</p>
<p>He climbs a few steps and knocks on the wood frame of one of the doors that are usually thrown wide and removed when the store is in business.</p>
<p>“Pardon the intrusion,” he says.  Mu-san doesn’t appear to be in, yet, back from his trip to the river or wherever else he is before he meets with Kisuke, but he’d been invited over, and the door was unbarred, and it’s not like Kisuke is going to <em>steal</em> anything or something.</p>
<p>He still steps lightly as he enters, follows the door through the back, and toes off his <em>geta</em>.  The <em>genkan</em> is dark wood, and opens to a set of stairs descending and into a kitchen.  Kisuke opts to sit at the table, Western in style, and of a wood similar to that of the floor (or, as much as he can tell in the dark).  There are no lights – the master of the house is out, and even then, Kisuke doubts Mu-san uses many lights when he’s home, given his comfort in the dark and the shadows.  When the shop is closed, something Kisuke has definitively tied to the moon phases, all lights are dark, no matter the hour.</p>
<p>Something shivers, then – the whole house, the shop, as if something took reality and brushed it ever so gently, as one would a butterfly wing and suddenly everything in reality is the scale dust of the wing itself.</p>
<p>And then Mu-san appears in front of him.</p>
<p>“Come down to the basement,” he says, forestalling any questions Kisuke could possibly articulate at the moment. “It’s easier to just show you, a little.”</p>
<p>Because what just happened wasn’t just “a little”?</p>
<p>Kisuke goes, though, because of curiosity, and his friend.</p>
<p>The stairs down to the basement are hewn stone and not particularly nice under Kisuke’s socks.  They’re also not as worn as he’d have expected.  Mu-san had been here before him, after all, and the rocks look old.  Even a decade of use would have seen some smoothness.</p>
<p>Mu-san leads him to a lead- and silver-bound door, takes one last look at him, and beckons him into the room.</p>
<p>The room is more like a chamber in a cathedral, except for the fact that the ceiling extends beyond the bounds of the room, the shop, the sky, and what looks back is a gleaming amber eye the size of the moon itself, the only flickers of light are teeth of knives, bigger than any human-made structure in any of the realms Kisuke has been to.  There’s something of a cheekbone, if cheekbones could be translucent and opaque and ridged and scaled and a few other things Kisuke isn’t quite sure about.</p>
<p>The darkness runs the gamut from abys to Hades to night to black hole to void.</p>
<p>“It’s a little hard,” Mu-san says beside him, and Kisuke can almost picture the expression on his face – brows drawn and frown on, mouth turned down and slightly hitched to one side to better express his apology, “to explain that you’re actually basically the lure of an angler fish for an eldritch being that’s also you.”</p>
<p>Mu-san shifts, then, and Kisuke can really only see it out of the corner of his eye because the rest of his attention is firmly focused on the being piercing his soul and holding him hostage.</p>
<p>Black turns to orange, and amber – and now that stare is coming from two different directions and Kisuke isn’t quite sure he’s getting out of this alive.</p>
<p>He thinks he’d make a very poor sacrifice to an eldritch being, but what does he know of eldritch beings?</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Mu-san says resigned, “that’s probably enough of that.”</p>
<p>He hauls Kisuke up over a shoulder and out of the room, the singular visible eye in the darkness above appearing to roll.</p>
<p>Kisuke would like to think it’s in exasperation, before he’s seeing the darkness behind his eyelids.</p>
<p>~IiI~</p>
<p>Life, it turns out, does go on when your friend is a lure for his own greater body of an eldritch being from a few universes and dimensions away.</p>
<p>Apparently, he’d accidently inflicted a couple to the Void that is most easily, and least harmfully, mentioned as Mugetsu, in his quest to find a similar enough dimension to his own to hopefully ensure another version of him isn’t created.</p>
<p><em>Apparently</em>, they also had quite a bit of time, now, since Kisuke was now on board and could just give Mugetsu, either the larger or smaller version, the <em>hōgyoku</em> (should he wish to do so.  He could do it as an offering, Mugetsu had pointed out, could even just box it up – he wasn’t particularly picky about these kinds of things.</p>
<p>Kisuke, months later, puts it in the middle of a decadent piece of chocolate instead.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Bonus:</strong>
</p>
<p>“What were you planning on doing to Aizen?”</p>
<p>Mugetsu shrugs, leaning back on the counter in the <em>Shōten</em>'s kitchen.  “Eat him, probably.  Maybe spit him out before he went too crazy, just long enough to mess with his god-complex and loneliness problems.”</p>
<p>“And any other problems?”</p>
<p>“Well, I already ate Ginjō and Tsukushima, so that’s the Fullbringers, and then I’m holding Yhwach hostage, sort-of, so that’s the Quincy, mostly, and do we really need a Soul King?”</p>
<p>Kisuke considers the question.  “I would have to run some equations and everything, but theoretically, so long as there was something that…”</p>
<p>Mugetsu slowly blinks, and takes a sip of his tea.  “I mean, he wasn’t using that plane anyways.”</p>
<p>Kisuke hums, mentally running the calculations of what the presence of a quite benevolent, very protective, eldritch being would have on the various realms.</p>
<p>“He was also mostly a withered corpse, anyways.”</p>
<p>“Would you be able to balance things, though, given the whole ‘void’ aspect?”</p>
<p>“Well, you’ve a wealth of creativity, Kisuke,” Mugetsu manages to say with a straight face.  “Mind inserting a little into the world?”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Kisuke says, voice a little higher than he would’ve liked it to come out, “is <em>that</em> where you were asking me to put it?”</p><hr/>
<p>And that's a warp!</p>
<p>
  <strong>Notes for fun and clarification:</strong>
</p>
<p>1. Ichigo (as Mu-san, which is 1000% his Mugetsu form) only gets to hang out when the moon is new and not in the sky.  For more fun reading, you can check out <a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/what-are-the-phases-of-the-moon/">here</a>.</p>
<p>2. Chocolate was apparently only really imported to Japan post 1900, with Meiji being one of, if not the first, homegrown chocolate maker in 1918.  Kisuke is a little ahead of his times, but also, something like 20ish years is probably not a bad time line for him to get the Vizored situated, and start trying to figure out what the heck he's doing while in exile.</p>
<p>3. Fun with names: 望月 is the last name Ichigo is called by in this fic, it is a real last name, and one of the potential meanings is full moon.  Mu-san is Ichigo just being terrible with names and having Kisuke call him that, when it's very much <em>not</em> any kind of name of his, is weird to him, so Mu-san is a bit of a substitute.</p>
<p>4. I really know nothing about Lovecraftian mythos, and uh, I don't really want to, mostly because it's not my cup of tea.  Thanks!</p>
<p>Let me know if I missed anything (or messed up anything) too badly!</p>
<p>Kudos and comments are very welcome -- I'm not always great at replying, especially since work just started today, but I'll do my best!!!</p>
<p>~Fins</p>
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